A Shadow Of You
by moonlightpath
Summary: Ongoing. She never liked Sasuke. Ino just wanted to feel loved and experience love like every other girl. On the other hand, Shikamaru wondered why the troublesome woman refused to realize that she is loved. Rated M for future chapters
1. Yamanka Ino

A Shadow Of You

chapter o1.

Today's weather was a great one. Not too sunny but not too dreary and that was why Yamanka Ino was outside strolling about town on her day off. After coming back from a B-rank mission, Tsunade-sama had rewarded her and her jouuin team a well-earned break. But even if Ino had fully intended to take up her break with a relaxed mind, she couldn't help but feel a little down.

Walking slowly along the streets of Konoha, she glanced at the shops as she passed by. One by one, she took in the sight of happy villagers flocking in and out of the shops. That day was too good a day after a week of rain. It was not a surprise to find many people out on the streets that day.

For a while she walked.

She walked until she reached a couple of kids pretending to be shinobis in front of her. One kid was chasing another kid with a leaf in his hand, pretending it was a kunai. They burst into laughter as they chased each other back and forth. Ino found it extremely amusing for some reason. That is, until one of them accidently bumped into her.

She got angry.

"Watch it, kid!" She threatened. She placed both hands on her hips and started to scold them.

The unafraid kid nodded to her words but stuck his tongue out at her when he thought she was finished with her scolding.

Ino was about to continue on scolding the kid for at least ten more minutes when she heard someone call her name.

"Ino-pig!" A pink haired kunoichi called out, waving her hand at her.

Hearing her name, Ino turned around. She saw her old friend, Haruno Sakura. The moment her back was turned, the kid she had been scolding immediately ran away with his friends. Of course, not before he rudely called her a 'stupid old lady'. Ino, because she was distracted, did not hear him, fortunately for the kid.

Upon seeing her friend, she was halfway through raising her arm out to give Sakura a half wave when she stopped the motion when she spotted the black haired shinobi besides her old best friend.

A little taken back, but not surprised, Ino snapped out of it and dropped her waving hand. She forced a smile at Sakura.

"Hi Forehead! Er... Hi Sasuke-kun!" Her eyes glanced at the dark-haired man beside Sakura.

Sasuke, who was standing beside his old pink haired teammate, gave Ino a slight nod before shoving his hands in his pockets.

"What're you doing here, Ino-pig?" Sakura asked.

"I have a day off today. I just got back from a mission yesterday. So I'm making use of the break and walking around town!"

"Yeah! The weather is surprisingly nice today! And I just couldn't stay at the hospital so Tsunade-sama allowed me to take a break and so I decided to go get some ramen and then I bumped into Sasuke-kun just now!" Tsunade-sama's apprentice gushed.

She didn't comment. She didn't know what would come out of her mouth if she opened it. Would she say something mean and hurt her old best friend's feelings? Ino had a feeling she would, so she kept her mouth shut.

Sasuke was getting impatient and he clearly didn't like the blonde kunoichi, as he never had. Ino knew this.

"Sakura, let's go. I'm hungry." He placed a hand on arm for a second to get her attention, before removing it to place it back in his pockets again. Sakura, upon feeling the gentle touch on her forearm, immediately blushed pink.

"O-of course, Sasuke-kun." She said to him, a small smile appeared on her pink, which Ino had only seen Sakura use on the silent avenger.

Ino couldn't help but feel the anger that started to bubble inside of her. It happened every time whenever she saw Sasuke and Sakura together. The feelings of anger were old. And it was clearly not the first time she had seen Sasuke and Sakura together.

"Anyways Forehead, I've got to go too!" Ino announced. She didn't want to see anymore of her… defeat and loss. She watched as Sakura waved at her again before she quickly hurried after the retreating back of Uchiha Sasuke.

But Ino didn't leave yet. She continued to watch with her fists clenched at the backs of Sakura and Sasuke as they walked further away from her until they eventually disappeared into a crowd of people.

"Ever since that day..." She furiously whispered as the feelings of anger continued to bubble inside of her. "Ever since he came back, he changed."

She felt a pang of sadness invade the feelings of anger within her.

"_She_ made him change."

She thought about her old best friend. She was the one that cried when Sasuke left. She was the one in constant pain. She was the one that lost the love of her life. Sakura was the one waiting for him to come back.

But Ino was waiting too.

It's just that she convinced everyone she was over him because she thought Konoha couldn't take two kunoichis with broken hearts. But inside in her heart, she believed Sasuke would come back to Konoha as well. She never believed she truly loved him. Not the way Sakura did at least, but she still couldn't believe it when Sasuke smiled at _Sakura_ and accepted _Sakura_ instead of _her_.

She had lost and she knew she wasn't happy with it.

Her anger had subsided.

The moment she stopped thinking about them, her mood started to brighten and the angry feeling in the pit of her stomach slowly dissipated.

Now all she wanted to do was to forget and move on… if she could.

After all, it had been a long time since Sasuke returned back to Konoha. The old Rookie Nine were all grown up and were either jouuin or ANBU. They were no longer kids, and they led adult lives now.

In fact, Sakura and Sasuke had been together for almost 2 years. Naruto and Hinata were together, as well as Neji and Tenten. Not Ino though. Two years ago, a few months after Naruto brought back Sasuke, she had decided to put being a shinobi as first and foremost. She worked hard to go up a rank from a chuuin to a jouuin. She took on more missions. She felt the joy of being busy and away on missions. It made the days go by faster. And before she knew it, it had been two years.

Ino was at the old Team 10 training grounds now. She had purposely walked astray from the streets of Konoha and had headed towards the other direction.

She stood at the centre of the field and invited old memories to her. It had been a while since she last been here! In fact, the last time had been before Asuma-sensei died and before her team separated.

She continued to smile fondly as she remembered memories of when she was in the genin team with two other teammates and her old sensei. She remembered she had been so angry and frustrated when she was teamed up with a lazy teammate and a fat teammate instead of Sasuke-kun! She had shed tears of anger alone in her room with the door shut, cursing Sakura for being on the same team!

Now, she shook her head at her past childishness.

'_But there wasn't just Sasuke that made me frustrated._' She mused as she continued down memory lane. She felt a little tickle in her stomach as she giggled when she remembered the memories of when she would get mad at Shikamaru for lazing around instead of training or scolding Chouji for constantly pigging out on his chips instead of watching his appearance!

It was one of the best days of her childhood even if she herself admitted she had been a loud brat.

Suddenly remembering something, Ino dug her hand into her kunai pouch and took out a photo. It was a photo of her and the rest of Team Ten. She smiled at the old photograph of her 12 year old self, her two teammates, and their late Asuma-sensei. She was in the centre between the two boys and smiling proudly at the camera. She was glad she ended up as part of Team Ten.

In fact... when did she stop going to their monthly dinners?

Ino sighed.

It had been two years since she last attended one. She bit her lips, a little regretful because she had been the one to first initiate the team monthly dinner when she was still a genin. And now with her new shinobi rank, she was swamped with irregular missions.

She hoped one of these days, she could organize another get together. After all, it had been a while before she last saw her old teammates. Sure, she saw them occasionally in a crowd of people or even at the spring festival last month, but she often went on to three to four month long missions with her new jouuin team, so the time they had met were very limited.

In fact, she kind of missed Shikamaru and Chouji.

She imagined the twelve-year-old Shikamaru sleeping under the clouds and a twelve year old Chouji sitting beside him, munching away on an ever-present bag of chips.

Deciding she would go find them right now, as time was aplenty, she left the old Team Ten training field, hoping that Shikamaru and Chouji were currently away on missions. After all, Ino only had today off before leaving for another mission the next day. Konoha's top interrogator was often needed for secret spy missions and with a possible Shinobi war happening, she was needed more than ever.

She went back to the streets of Konoha and sought out the ramen stand. Seeing Naruto there, she asked him if she had seen her teammates. Naruto, with a mouthful full of ramen and on his fifth bowl already, told her that he didn't know where Shikamaru was but said Chouji was on a mission with his father and wouldn't be back until next week.

By the time Ino had walked skirted the streets of Konoha some more, hoping to bump into the lazy shinobi, it was already starting to get late.

She threw her hands up in the air in frustration and cursed the lazy shinobi.

'_That lazy Shikamaru! Where could he be?_' She furiously thought. She was so annoyed with looking for him in the streets of Konoha for around two hours and a half, that each step grew heavier as she stomped her way through the streets.

'Oh, the sun is setting..' Ino thought as she tilted her head slightly upwards as she raised her eyes towards the sky.

'_The sky... The clouds!'_ Her eyes widened. How could she forget the one thing she had always known about Shikamaru? That lazy shinobi's favourite past time was cloud watching!

'_Have we really been apart for so long that I have forgotten this?'_ Ino thought furiously as she raced towards Shikamaru's favourite hill to lay down to watch clouds. Already, the sun was beginning to set.

When she reached the hill, she didn't stop and continued to run, searching for Shikamaru. From a distance away, she spotted him. He was lying down on the grass, with his hands behind his hands as a pillow. His eyes were closed.

Ino slowed down to catch her breath. She decided he was asleep and that she would not wake up.

Slowly, she approached him and looked down at him so that her face was right above his face. His eyes remained closed.

In front of the sleeping Shikamaru and standing Ino, the sunset casted a beautiful shade of orange, red, and yellow. The yolk of a sun slowly dipped downwards in the sky. But Ino's attention was not on the sunset. She only looked at the shadow user's face.

Before, she had only seen him occasionally from a distance.

'_Two years makes a difference_.' She thought, moving her face closer to his, as if to inspect the every change in his face. He looked older, more mature, and like he had been through a lot. Ino could see that even in his sleep, that his neck tensed a little. '_He must not get much sleep_.' Ino concluded.

His sleeping face looked so calm and peaceful, that she could not help but smile. She knew that Shikamaru was just as busy, or even in fact, more busy than her. He was Konoha's main strategist, and the village constantly needed his knowledge and skill. Being so outstanding, Shikamaru must have had a lot of stress.

That was why Ino wisely chose not to disturb his sleep by waking him up.

'I'll just let him sleep. Maybe I'll catch up with him after my next mission.' Ino thought, listening to his slow breathing.

Then a cast of wind blew.

It blew a gentle breeze across the hill, making the grasses and the little daisies that grew on the hill quiver and sway with the wind. It caught Ino's long ponytail and gently swayed it in the wind.

The sleeping Shikamaru's mind started to stir awake. A familiar scent that he had not smelled for a long time reached his noise and he slowly awoke from his sleep.

Where was he?

Feeling the cold wind registering on his skin, his mind told him that he must still be on the hill and that he had fallen asleep.

He opened his eyes and looked straight into clear blue eyes.

The scent of _her_ clouded his mind as he silently listened to his quickened heart.

"Ino..." He murmured.

It was the first time in a long time that he had seen her smile.

"Hi." Her clear voice rang out, free of the old Ino annoying voice he had always thought associated with her.

And Shikamaru knew then, even with his currently clouded mind, that something very troublesome was going to happen to him.


	2. Troublesome

"It's dark." Ino eventually spoke up, breaking the silence between them.

Shikamaru and Ino were together on the hill, enjoying the silent company of each other. The sun had long set already and the two sat together in the cool spring night.

The boy, no, the man -Shikamaru had became a _man_ now- grunted in response, acknowledging that he had heard her. He had his eyes closed again, but he was not asleep. He was thinking and enjoying the company of his old teammate.

They fell back into silence again for what seemed like a long time.

Shikamaru was a bit surprised with the silence between them. Ino had always been loud. When Asuma-sensei was still alive, he always referred to the blonde as the "loud mouth", while he was the "slacker", and Chouji was the "glutton". Shikamaru wondered why right now, Ino wasn't living up to her old nickname.

Ino was positioned beside him. She sat with her knees pulled up to her chest. Shikamaru noted that even if her mouth wasn't going off a hundred miles a minute like the younger Ino did all the time, she still wasn't able to sit still. She was always restless and she was currently playing with a little daisy. She tugged gently on the petals, picking them off one by one.

She sighed.

Shikamaru heard the sigh and opened an eye, squinting in the dark at her.

"Hey." It was the second thing he had said to her since he woke up from his nap and saw her looking down on him with big, clear blue eyes.

Ino turned and looked down at Shikamaru, who was still lying down on the grass.

"Hi." She said softly. "You look like you're doing well, Shikamaru."

"You too. You seem a lot quieter now."

"Really? I guess so. I've grown up, right?"

Shikamaru studied her carefully, taking in the new clothes she now wore, the way she held herself, and even the change in her voice.

The Ino now still dawned purple clothing, but she had removed the bindings on her legs and wore a short purple skirt and matching purple sleeveless shirt. Covering her arms up to her ankle were fishnets. The silver earrings she had worn as a genin still remained and it glinted in the moonlight. The woman in the clothes, Shikamaru mused, felt different. The way she held herself, proudly and confidently had been different than Shikamaru remembered her when she was still a genin. Back when Ino was still a genin, even though she was loud and demanded attention, Shikamaru knew that Ino was really hoping to be acknowledged and shine just like Sakura did when she became a medical nin when they later became chuuins.

Shikamaru then thought about the change in her voice and her tone. It didn't sound like a girly, high pitched shrieking sound to him anymore. She was calmer now. Shikamaru frowned a little with this discovery. Ino's face was turned away from him and he took this opportunity to glance at her face. He wondered if the old, loud, bratty Ino was still there.

"If you mean growing up as in less loud, troublesome, and annoying, then maybe." He said, answering her previous question.

Ino's blue eyes widened. "Troublesome? You thought I was troublesome?"

Shikamaru almost laughed at her expression. If she was the old Ino and she heard him laugh, she would punch him for sure. So he bit his tongue and refrained himself from laughing.

"You still are, but yeah, you were one scary person Ino. You would boss and nag at me and Chouji all day. Every mission we went on were not only troublesome because you were always acting rash, but it was filled with your loud, piercing voice."

Ino's mouth opened but she couldn't form words because her mind was too busy whirling information around in her head. She had forgotten about what she was like as a child. Did _that_ much time past by? Did five years of constantly taking on missions and living like a workaholic with no time for anybody made her forget what she was like before?

But a familiar anger brewed inside of her. She wasn't used to people insulting her and calling her 'loud' and least of all 'troublesome'! Other jouuins, not to mention any lower ranked shinobis, respected her as Konoha's top interrogator. And now she stared at the man lying beside her, looking at her with a lazy expression.

"Troublesome woman." He said under his breath. "You never let me have any peace."

She couldn't contain the anger that brewed to the surface and a heavy glare formed on her face, making her appear frightening.

"Nara Shikamaru! What nerve you have! How dare you speak to me like this? Loud, piercing voice? Troublesome and rash?" Ino's voice raised with each word.

"You are a troublesome woman." He agreed, trying to keep a straight face. It had been a long time since he had last made Ino mad and he was trying not to _laugh_. What an odd situation he was in!

Ino's teeth clenched and she threw a wild punch at him.

"Ow!" Shikamaru whined and clenched his shoulders where he was sure a bruise would form in the morning.

"How'd you get so strong, woman!" He said accusingly.

She gasped. Not at what he said, but what she had done.

Ino looked down on her fist that had just punched Shikamaru's shoulder. She quickly unclenched it and lowered it back down to her lap, where it rested harmlessly. It had been a long time since she lost control like that. Hearing the insults her old teammate had thrown at her had driven her up the wall and she had lashed out at him without thinking.

No one had ever made Ino mad enough to lash out without thinking. Except Shikamaru. Looking up, her eyes met with his, clearly confused.

He laughed. And it was no normal chuckle, he was laughing so hard that his sides started to shake. Ino's confusion did not shed and she watched as he clutched his stomach as he laughed like he couldn't stop.

"Hey! Stop laughing!" Ino was angry again because she didn't think it was funny. Even though.. she did feel a bit better after punching him.

So she did it again.

"Ino! Why are you still punching me?" Shikamaru had quit laughing and was now trying to stop the fuming kunoichi from hurling punches at him.

"I. Don't. Know. I'm just MAD!" She was screaming now. Why was she getting so worked up for him calling her troublesome? He did that all the time when they were still on the same team. He called a lot of people troublesome and she certainly wasn't the exception. In fact, he probably thought she was the most troublesome of them all!

Shikamaru was getting beat up by a girl and he couldn't hit back. But he still had to stop her attacks or he would be _really_ sore in the morning.

"Stop it!" He said furiously, catching her punching hand in his own hand.

Ino stopped, only because her hand shaped in a fist was caught in his hold.

She started trembling.

"I-i don't know what came over m-me." She whispered, her head lowered and she hid her eyes.

Shikamaru for once was at a complete loss. He tried to catch her eyes with his. To understand her. Man, if he thought she was unpredictable before, she was even more so now.

"You sure are troublesome, woman." He said the same words again. When Ino heard the words she whipped her head up and looked at him furiously, her eyes dry and glaring. But inside she was confused at her own actions. Why did she feel so angry at his words? It wasn't the first time she had been called troublesome by him. Was it because they had parted for such a long time and then the first few words he spoke to her after all these years, was to call her _troublesome_? She scoffed and scowled at the shinobi in front of her.

"But," Shikamaru drawled, "I missed you."

She froze and felt the anger in her subside just as quickly as it had come.

"Welcome back."

Ino felt the cool night wind blow on her, but she didn't feel cold. She felt warm all over. She could feel her eyes gloss over with unshed tears.

Slowly, Ino felt a smile starting to spread on her lips. It grew wider and wider. A very Ino-like squeal escaped her lips as she smiled widely at him.

Shikamaru couldn't help but smile back at her and he was glad she couldn't see the blush on his face because of the dark as she suddenly jumped on him and gave him a big hug.

Ino clung onto him and encircled her arms around his neck. She clung onto him like her life depended on it. She buried her face into his shoulder and then the tears finally fell down her pale face as she wept.

"I missed you too, Shikamaru!"

Awkwardly, Shikamaru patted her back and looked upwards at the star-lined night sky.

"Oh kami-sama... how troublesome."

It was the morning after that night and it was the first time in a long time that she had a peaceful, undisturbed sleep.

Ever since she had been promoted to a jouuin, she had difficulty sleeping. The assassinations that sometimes came hand in hand with Rank A missions made her toss and turn in her sleep as uncontrollable images of deaths by her very own hand, haunted her. But last night had been serene and undisturbed. And she was grateful because she felt energetic the next day. Even the Hokage noticed the difference and commented on it.

The Hokage even had to reprimand her to act seriously before she gave a briefing on Ino's next mission.

The rank of the mission would be Rank A and would last approximately three to possibly four weeks. This mission had not been Ino's request, but was especially assigned to her by the Hokage herself.

"Ino, this mission is especially assigned for a Yamanaka and since you are our best interrogator right now, we need to make sure that this mission is carried out successfully without any mistakes. This mission is extremely important and will determine Konoha's future."

Ino stood before Tsunade and firmly nodded as she accepted the scroll containing the mission task from Shizune who stepped out from beside Tsunade.

"Since this is a spying mission, you will not be given a team. Instead, you will have one fellow shinobi to go with you as back up in case something goes wrong. We will have an ANBU member escort you to Hidden Sound Village. But-"

"Wait, what? The Sound village?" She gasped.

Tsunade sighed and impatiently tapped her fingernails on her paper-covered desk. Her expression was grim.

"Yes, we are having some troubles with the Sound right now. Suspicious actions have been reported to be going on there. We need to investigate. The entire fire country is cautious with the Sound. We absolutely cannot let the Sound do whatever they want without our consent. We need to find out what's going on. And you are the woman for the job, Yamanaka Ino. We need you to get into the minds of one of the important officials of the Sound -his name, information, and how profile are in the scroll- and find out what the Sound is up to. From what my sources tell me, they are building something. Possibly a weapon. We need facts and we need them now."

The information sunk in.

She was going to be sent all the way to the Earth country where the notorious and dangerous Sound village where Orochimaru reigned power over to complete a mission. Ino took small comfort in the ANBU shinobi she would be paired with; at least she would not have to go to that village alone. If she had a choice, she would never set a foot in that wretched place at all. But she had no choice. She was given a mission and was expected to carry it out successfully with as few errors as possible. And she would do it.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. I will leave for Sound right away." She tilted her head in understanding at the Hokage and turned to leave the Hokage tower.

"Ino, before you leave, keep in mind to stay undetected at all times. During the entire mission, do not expose yourself as a leaf shinobi. If exposed, you will be immediately taken away by the Sound and I would fear for your safe return."

Tsunade was serious and her grim facial features did not leave her. Even Shizune had a worried expression on her face.

Ino stayed rooted to her spot, becoming fearful, but hid it expertly behind a blank face. Slowly, she nodded and grinned weakly at the Hokage to show she understand her warning.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." She said, masking her face to a confident one and walked out the door.

After leaving the Hokage tower, Ino headed for her apartment immediately. She lived alone so when she arrived at her place, she was greeted with silence. She went to her room and started gathering kunais and other various weapons for her mission.

While picking some newly cleaned kunais off from her shelf, her eyes drifted onto an old picture frame. Pausing, she glanced at the picture of old Team Ten. It brought back nostalgic memories of how she used to go on missions with the entire Team Ten. She thought of the present. Now as a jouuin, she often went on solo missions or with one teammate.

She bit her lips. She took one more glance at the old Team Ten picture before gently placing it face down. She then resumed her previous task of preparing for the mission.

Eventually, with one last look at her apartment, which she suddenly thought looked very big, she turned off the lights and shut the front door behind her.

Silently, she ran at full speed towards her family's flower shop to inform them of her departure. Then she headed towards the front gates of Konoha, where her teammate for the mission would be waiting for her.

The ANBU member stood with a hawk mask on that covered his entire face. He was silent as Ino slowly approached him. She introduced herself and waited for an introduction from the ANBU member standing in front of her. But she received none and she could only look into his dark eyes and wonder who her silent teammate was.

Then, she decided it didn't matter. She would find out later.

"Let's go to the Sound and find out whatever the hell is going on there."

She then turned and started ahead of him, but not before turning around to look at the gate entrance that she had just passed. No one was there to see them off, so she turned back and started walking again.

Ino tilted her head upwards towards the sky and noted the pleasant weather.

"Look at the clouds today. Don't they look inviting?" She mused out loud.

As expected, she received no answer. She sighed and wondered if she was going to have to put up with a silent teammate all the way to the Sound. It was a weeklong trip, for kami-sama's sake!

At least she didn't have to look back at the ANBU member to know that he was walking quietly behind her as they continued on down the path to Hidden Sound Village.


	3. Unearthed Trouble

_I wish I were at home instead of doing this mission..._

The sentence ran through Ino's head as she walked at a decent pace with her temporary partner in a heavy rainfall. Silence had fallen between them since they first stepped out from Konoha's gates and it wasn't like she didn't enjoy the silence because it did provide her the peace to think.

Walking in front of the ANBU shinobi, she thought about the current shinobi situation. Sasuke had been retrieved by Naruto and Sakura and he had returned to Konoha without restraint. He had his chakra temporarily sealed for a year and he had been given back his genin status. He was currently a jouuin like her, and she had heard news from her higher ups that he would soon undergo ANBU training. Ino then thought about what her other peers were doing right now. But a frown appeared on her face when she realized she didn't know much more of what half of her friends were up to. She knew about Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura and what they were doing because they were the famous three due to the Uchiha retrieval two years ago. Sakura was still working at the hospital and getting stronger every day with her medical ninjutsu as well as working as Tsunade's apprentice.

Thinking about Sakura, Ino couldn't help but feel a little jealous about her long time friend. Besides the fact that she had Sasuke's attention, she was getting stronger every day. Rumour had it that her medical knowledge would one day surpass even Tsunade's. Her chakra-laden strength was something to fear while in combat, and Ino knew her own strength was no match against hers.

_Is Sakura beating me everything now?_

Sure, Ino was a jouuin and had already started taking on A rank missions, but there was something she felt she was lacking... or missing.

She suddenly stopped, thoughts desperately running through her head. Looking down on her hands, she realized they were clenched. A feeling of unease took place in her heart and she wondered why her heart was hurting.

Yamanak Ino, at aged nineteen did not feel happy. Sometimes after waking up in bed in the morning, she would wonder what made her take on missions every single day. Even minor ones. No rest, no breaks during the weekends. She dedicated her life to missions. She wanted to be stronger, to be recognized. And now that she had successfully obtained her rank as a jouuin... the feelings of wanting to be recognized should have ceased. But they were still there in her heart. Did people know who she is? She wanted to make a _name _for herself.

Slowly unclenching her fists and forcing herself to calm down, she picked up her pace so she would not fall behind. The ANBU shinobi must have noticed her sudden falter, but he appeared like he did not notice. He had walked several meters ahead of her already.

Ino stared at the back of the ANBU shinobi and directed her thoughts towards another direction. Ino had a few guesses who the ANBU was. But she kept her mouth shut and questioned his strange silence instead.

The trip to Sound took four days. They had rested a couple of times and had set up tents when night fell. It was never safe to move at nighttime, especially the closer they got to Sound.

Ino and the unidentified ANBU had just crossed the borders of the Fire Country and were closing in on the Valley of the End, which they had to cross before the Hidden Village of Sound could be reached. The atmosphere changed when they reached the valley. Everything appeared darker, as if only a few rays of sunlight hit the valley. Even the air around them felt harder to breath and Ino had accidently killed a snake that had slithered by her feet with a kunai.

"Now would be time to review our mission and our plan of attack." Ino said as she took out the scroll from her weapon pouch. They were nearing the village and they would have to think of a disguise and how to enter the village without their identities of Konoha shinobis being exposed for all to see.

Ino raised her eyebrows at her silent teammate and decided if he was going to be stubborn and not talk, then she would plan the attack herself and she expected him to follow.

"Alright, the plan is that I will head in first in a disguise and you will act as backup. I will find someone of high status to use Shintenshin on and take over his body and obtain information from Maaka Hortzo. Hokage-sama said we must not blow our cover." Ino studied the hawk mask, but of course she could not see past it, but she took the nod as a confirmation of her plan. The ANBU made a pointing sign towards the direction of the Sound Village and ran towards it.

"Alright, see you then." Ino huffed in response and she went to the forest clearing so she could change into her disguise.

Behind a tree, she took off the backpack from her back and removed her hair tie. She placed an eye patch over her right eye and removed her leaf headband and placed it safely in her backpack. She pulled out a dark grey cloak from the pack and wore it over her regular clothes. Finished, she zipped up the pack and hid it behind the tree.

Adjusting her facial expression so that she looked solemn, she walked towards the main gates of Sound and approached the guard standing in front it. He was already eyeing her suspiciously as she slowly made her way towards him.

"Halt. Show me identifications."

Ino paused. She had no identifications to show. She figured she would have to knock him out cold before he could alert other guards. She slowly raised her blue eyes so she could make eye contact with him from under her cloak hood. She made sure she had her eyes narrowed, while her right hand clenched around a kunai under her dark gray cloak.

"You don't need to know who I am, but I suggest you let me through." She demanded, keeping her voice low.

The guard's eyes narrowed as well. His own hand reached for a weapon. He drew out a kunai and pointed it at her threateningly.

"I will not let you through!" The guard disappeared for a second and reappeared behind her, the kunai at her throat. Ino stood, unfazed and thought about how to get out of her current situation. All she had to do was press a pressure point on his hand and he would drop the kunai in pain. Then she would immediately grab his hand and twist his arm around to his back and dislocate it.

But before she could grab the guard's weapon hand, a scream came from the northern direction, from the inside of the village.

From behind her, she heard the guard hiss. "Not again. I have to head over there and stop Kumoi and his pawns from killing citizens. I will have to kill you now." He made the move to slit her throat, but Ino was trained and her speed was faster. Her hand flew up towards the hand by her throat and pressed a point on the hand. The guard cried out in surprise and pain, dropping the kunai just as Ino had predicted. She quickly grabbed his wrist and twisted it around his back. With a quick powerful pull, she heard the loud crack. She dropped the guard and calmly walked through the front gates, leaving the guard out cold with a broken arm behind her.

The screams that echoed from inside the village provided her an advantage, as she soon saw five or six Sound shinobi guards run towards the sound. She hurried along at a faster pace, making sure the hood from her cloak covered her face. Even if she were not wearing her shinobi headband that would identify her as a leaf shinobi, it was still best if her face could not be seen.

She had successfully gotten through the main gates and her cover had not been blown. Her next step was to find the Planning and Tactics building in Sound. She had already memorized the exterior and interior map of the building from the mission scroll during the trip to Sound and it wasn't long before she spotted the building.

This time, there were no guards to stop here from entering the building. When she made it in safely, Ino blended in with the Sound shinobis and nobody took a second glance at her. From underneath her hood, she studied each shinobi that passed her. Each one had a mean look on his or her face. Not one of them looked friendly and Ino felt a slight unease at the presence of many ruthless killers bred from the notorious Sound village. It was true that Orochimaru had been killed by Sasuke several years ago in a fight when he tried to take over his body to revive himself, but the Sound village had not been destroyed. They had a new head of the village and it was rumoured that he had enough power that people from neighboring countries were weary of. The last thing Ino wanted to do was come across the head of Sound right now. She was Konoha's top interrogator, who was often kept away for spy missions instead of missions with hand to hand combat. She was sure her skills were not up to par for facing dangerous S-class criminals.

Her current mission was to get information and lead on suspicious Sound actions and report back to Konoha.

As for now, she had to find someone to use Shintenshin on so she could ask questions easier, without the use of weapons and threatening. It was much too dangerous in enemy territory.

She reached the top of the spiraling staircase and observed the shinobis passing by that carried suspicious-looking scrolls under their arm. She made up her mind on a middle-aged man with brown hair that had a shiny looking music note - a symbol for the Sound village- emblem on the front of his shirt. Ino guessed he was someone important because of the arrogant aura he radiated. Even the way he walked demanded attention.

Glancing around her and making sure no one was around them or walking up the stairs, she touched her thumbs, middle finger, and index finger together in a circle to form the hand seal for Shintenshin. Estimating the distance between the man and her, she aimed the jutsu at the unexpecting man. She felt herself slowly lose consciousness and within seconds, her body slumped to the floor as her jutsu took effect.

When she regained consciousness, she woke up in the man's body. She double checked again to make sure no one was around before making her way to her own body and hid it behind a tall pillar near a corner.

She picked up the scroll that the owner of the body she was currently in had dropped and quickly opened and scanned the lines. It was addressed to the man she was going to get some answers from.

Knowing the direction to Hortzo's office from the memorized map in her head, she quickly found his office.

She had a total of ten minutes before her jutsu would release.

Before the door to his office, Ino raised the man's hand up to knock at the door.

"Come in" A gruff voice said.

She walked in with confidence. After all, she had to keep up with the arrogant act. Seeing the old man behind the desk, she matched his face up with the mental image of his picture from the mission scroll. Yes, he was who she was looking for.

Ino walked up to his desk and placed the scroll in front of him.

Quickly thinking of what she should say and trying to stay in character, she announced. "Three jouuin troops have been sent to the south." She recited what she had read in the scroll.

"Ah excellent. Good job Jiha." The old man smiled at Jiha-Ino. But the smile was not a friendly one. He leaned backwards into his chair and looked at her with slanted eyes. He motioned for her to leave the room.

But Ino had yet to leave the room. She made Jiha raise his nose into his air as an act of arrogance. She even gave what she hoped was a snooty sniff with her nose, or rather Jiha's noise.

Ino had to get information out of him.

"Regarding the jouuin troops, is it a good idea to send them south towards the Fire country?"

Hortzo slanted eyes narrowed at her.

Slowly, he moved in his chair so that his back was straight.

"Remember what we talked about? We are sending them for a sneak attack into the Fire Country." He drawled. He picked up a pen that was on his desk and raised in to a scroll. He scribbled something and placed it back down again.

Glancing at the scrawled ink, Ino's eyes widened. She recognized the sign for treason.

"Sound has finally rebuilt itself after Orochimaru's death and we need to spread our power towards bigger countries. We will start with overtaking the entire Earth Country." He laughed evilly.

"Now leave me be. I need to complete some more treaties with the other hidden villages to form allegiance. Orochimaru's legacy will not be forgotten. Not while I'm still around!"

Ino restrained from attacking him right this instant. This man was plotting something big. It would affect the entire shinobi nation if things got out of hand. When Orochimaru had created the Sound village, dangerous shinobis and kunoichis were trained from the village. But when Orochimaru's death occured, the village had been relatively at peace. Not many Leaf shinobis had been sent in to investigate and now this… _this _was happening. The Snake Sannin's death had made Sound angry and more power thirsty.

Ino, in Jiha's middle-aged body, turned around to leave. She faltered, restraining herself with all her willpower to not kill the man _now_. Her cover would have been blown if she did. Besides, her ten minutes with Shintenshin was nearing its end.

Suddenly, she sensed an oncoming projectile. With her honed instincts, she stepped towards the left and watched as a pen fly past her right ear, just missing her. Fearing the worst, her hand immediately flew to where she kept her kunais -on her thighs- when she remembered she was not in her own body. With a growl, she whipped around and faced the amused-looking Maaka Hortzo, who had stood up from his chair and a kunai in place of the pen gripped in his hand. It pointed in the direction of her heart, or rather Jiha's heart.

Even though Ino knew she would not feel an inkling of concern if Jiha took a kunai to the heart, she knew that the while she was in his body, and his body took a hit, her own body would get injured as well.

"You're not Jiha." He announced and flung the kunai at her again. Rolling her eyes, she stepped out of the line of attack.

"Of course. However did you find out?" She said sarcastically. Her cover as Jiha had been blown. That meant, time to go back to her own body.

He sent more kunai at her and Ino suspected he had called back up because she heard the sound of people running towards them and voices fast approaching. She estimated she had about two minutes before she would have to release her Shintenshin.

Unarmed with any weapons, Jiha-Ino charged at Hortzo. He saw her coming at her and slashed at her with the kunai, but she expertly evaded it and came up behind him. She knocked him from the chin with the palm of her hand, successfully cracking the bones on his face. Maaka Hortzo would have a disfigured face, but he would still be alive, unfortunately. Without looking back, she kicked his fallen body to the floor and leaped out the open window that was behind his desk. Just as she dropped from the window, she heard the door slam open and voices shouting of her escapade through the open window.

When her feet touched the ground, she quickly raced away. She was in pursuit. Actually she wondered where her backup was.

She had less than a minute left. But she couldn't release her jutsu out in the open. She hurried down the next alley she came across and lifted her hands to form the correct seal.

Ino awoke in her body and quickly cast away the feelings of waking up on a cold hard floor, albeit silently missing the warmth of arms around her. She missed the feeling of someone holding her when she returned back to her body after Shintenshin. Those were the good old days. But now, there were no arms of support.

When she woke up, she was still in the Planning and Tactics building. She raised herself up from the floor and stealthily walked down the spiral staircase and out of the building. By now, she was sure the entire village was being searched. It would be definitely be difficult to leave Sound through the front gate.

Unless...

Looking up towards the sky, she spotted a familiar looking black and white bird painted out of ink. A figure sat on top of it. It circled the sky above her a couple of times before flying away. Recognizing her escape route, she followed the bird.

She figured the bird could not land without getting attacked due to the swarms of Sound shinobi that had started to gather on the streets of Hidden Sound. They were searching high and low for a suspicious person. Meaning her.

While trying to blend in as much she could with the villagers that were running frantically to safety, she continued on in her run towards the direction of where she saw the ink bird had flown.

Ino had her escape route out of Sound in her line of vision, but a mean-looking shinobi stopped her from advancing further. His hands were already formed in a seal. Before she could react, she was already caught in his jutsu. Loud screeches filled the air around her, making her ears bleed at the high pitch screech. Gritting her death, she formed her own jutsu.

"Doton Doryuu Taiga!"

The earth around the enemy shinobi sunk as it became a river of mud. It trapped the shinobi in place from waist down and he was now frantically trying to free himself from the overflowing wet mud.

Ino smirked in triumph and glanced up at the sky. The bird was circling above her. She took note that it still did not descend them so she could climb aboard. That's when she realized that she was surrounded. Enemy Sound shinobis surrounded her in a tight circle. She assumed they would want to take her out before going at the bird.

She tensed, knowing that she would not be able to escape out of here without several wounds. Even though she would not ever admit it out loud, she was scared of her current situation.

She got into stance and lifted her heads into a seal to create two clones of herself. There was a swift movement to her left and she felt another presence next to her. The ANBU member had jumped down from his place on top of the bird and landed down beside her to join her in the oncoming fight.

"Go up." He commanded from behind his hawk mask.

Ino, still in her battle stance, glanced at him in disbelief.

"I'm a jouuin. I can _fight_." She growled.

"I can sense these shinobi's have some kind of altered form of chakra. They have an usual amount and I can sense the danger in them. Your type of fighting style is not suitable." He said calmly. He did not look at her. Instead, he took out a scroll from his pouch and quickly crouched down. With a couple of swift strokes, he painted kanji onto the scroll with his brush. Ino watched as monsters made out of ink and chakra emerged from the scroll and attacked the closest Sound shinobi.

Sai, the now identified ANBU, stood up from his couch and reached towards his back, unsheathing his katana. Moving the sword in front of him, he nimbly attacked a shinobi with a swift cut to the chest, cutting it open.

Ino watched amazed. It was the first time she had seen Sai at battle. He was fast, he was merciless, and he was graceful with the sword.

The blonde haired kunoichi refused to stand by and watch Sai take all the kills. She raised her hands to form the dragon seal, then the rat seal. She poured chakra into the ground at her feet and cried, "Doton Retsudo Tenshou!"

The ground several meters of her started crumbling as huge chunks of earth gave away, leaving large cracks etched into the ground. One of her strongest earth jutsu caused enough land damage to rattle the ground beneath them all. She watched her successful jutsu as many surprised Sound shinobi's fell into the cracks in the ground.

"Watch out!" Sai cried out.

But he was too late. Ino cursed, but knew she would not be able to dodge to oncoming brass knuckles at her sides. She took the hit full on and she felt pain in her abdomen. The brass knuckles had sliced her entire left side open and blood was flowing.

"Shit!" She spat out when the attack came again. The shinobi wielder of the brass knuckles leered at her and struck again. Using all her strength, she skillfully dodged his attacks. But as the minutes dragged on, the pain intensified. Soon, she was taking hits one after another.

Pain was all over and her left hand was stained with blood. She had raised her right hand with the kunai to counter against the oncoming strikes.

Not before long, Ino was on the ground, bleeding. She wondered if she would die then, but fortunately for her, Sai had finished off the remaining enemy shinobis and with a neat slice with a katana, cut the head off of the wielder of the brass knuckles, saving her from a killing strike.

His katana to the side, he made his way towards the fallen blonde kunoichi. He hoisted her up onto his shoulder and gathered chakra onto the soles of his feet and leapt up to the awaiting bird he had created out of ink and chakra.

Without speaking much, he started addressing Ino's wound by tying it up with a strip of cloth.

"By flying, we will reach Konoha in two days. Hang on until then." He spoke. He took off his mask and Ino could finally see his emotionless face. For once, she wished his face held emotions. She wanted to know what he was thinking. Did he think she was weak for getting injured?

Ignoring the horrible pain in her abdomen, she raised her tired face towards Sai.

"Why were you so silent before?" She whispered weakly.

Sai mouth stretched into a smile that he had practiced for years to express amusement and happiness. "Ah. Naruto dared me not to speak for a week. In exchange, he said he would teach me how to tell jokes."

Ino laughed weakly but immediately regretted it when she felt warm blood ooze through the strip of clothes from the small movement.

"It's my fault for getting injured." Ino murmured with her eyes closed. She felt apologetic but her pride stood in the way so she could not bring herself to apologize.

Sai did not respond. Instead, he watched as Ino slowly drifted into unconsciousness. Pulling out his sketchbook and paintbrush, he began to paint. It was a few minutes before he looked up from his artwork and looked at the pale blonde again, who was perspiring with a fever.

"Yes, you are weak." He said simply, before returning to his painting of a mountainous view.

Yamanaka Ino woke up on a hospital bed in Konoha. She felt sore all over. She lifted the white hospital blanket on her and peered at her bandaged cover abdomen. The wound was covered with bandages, but it was tainted a little red from her blood

At least she was alive.

"Excuse me, Yamanka-san. I know you have just woken up, but Hokage-sama requests your presence in her office immediately." Shizune said, approaching her bed. She frowned at the grimace on Ino's face as she forced her body to sit up on the hospital bed.

Ino nodded, understanding the situation. She figured Sai had written his side of the report, but she still had to hand in her own report on the mission.

Once she made her way out of the bed, she immediately headed towards Tsunade's office.

"Sit down." Tsunade's words were heavy as she stared hard at the blonde. Feeling a little bit weary, she obeyed her commands and took the chair before her desk.

"First of all. Were your identities exposed?"

Ino shook her head. "No. Although they discovered us to be outsider shinobis, they do not know we were from Konoha."

Tsunade hearing this, breathed out a sigh that she had been holding in with unease. Feeling the hangover dawning her after last night's sake, Tsunade stood up and walked around the table so that the two woman were facing one another.

"Sai has given me his side of report, but I want a confirmation from you."

Ino knew this was coming and she felt her heart drop with dread. The pain from her abdomen was adding to her obvious discomfort as well.

Looking the Hokage straight in the eye, she said with no falter in her words, "There may be a fifth shinobi war."

The ceases in her forehead increased as the Hokage appeared to be in deep thought. After a moment, she nodded. "It's what I feared."

The blonde kunoichi said nothing. So many things were running through her head. About two years ago, there was the Fourth Great Shinobi War where the five countries had formed an allegiance against Uchiha Madara and now possibly the Fifth Great Shinobi War against Hidden Sound and whatever alliance they have formed. She feared the worst. The entire village... the people... her friends...

After leaving a quiet Tsunade who had retired back to her seat with a sake bottle glasped firmly in her hands, Ino went back to the hospital where they let her leave after confirming her wounds were safe enough for her to leave the hospital.

Walking along the peaceful and familiar streets of Konoha, Ino planned out her next move.

She would go to a bar and drown herself with alcohol.

Devastation, destruction, loss, pain, _death._

She had lost too many in the fourth war already.

_Too_ much.


End file.
